Knob
Dialogue tags
You might say: said, speech tags, attributions
The words that show who is speaking. Leonard’s rules: never use a verb other than “said”, and never add an adverb to it.
- What it does
- Keep the reader oriented without drawing attention to themselves.
- Ask
- Would the reader know who spoke without this tag?
- Trouble
- He hissed menacingly; she exclaimed brightly.
What to look for
- Said naming the speaker
- An action beat beside speech
- No tag when the speaker is already clear
- An adverb tag drawing attention
Catalogue: Tag
- “said”: Neutral and almost invisible. Its only job is to name the speaker.
- Action beat: Avoid speech verbs other than “said”; a nearby action can carry the beat.
- No tag: When the speaker is already clear, avoid adding a speech verb or adverb.
- Adverb tag: “He hissed menacingly.” Leonard’s rule 4 forbids it: let the words carry the feeling.
Sources
- Elmore Leonard, Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle, rules 3–4
Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said.”
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "Dialogue tags" (dialogue-tags) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/fiction-writing/ against my project
Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.
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